Why I Started BIVI

I started BIVI because I could not find the food I wanted to carry.

That is the whole reason, and it is still the test I use. Would I pack this for a hard day? Would I hand it to someone I care about? If the answer is no, we do not make it.

The day I quit whey

I love ice cream. On a trek through Iceland I stopped at every dairy farm I could, mostly for that reason. On those farms I saw whey for what it is: the liquid left over when milk becomes cheese.

I had been buying it as a powder since high school, more than 30 years. It was my staple for protein, and I had never once asked how it got from that vat into a tub. When I learned how much processing that takes, I stopped using it that day. I have not gone back.

That changed how I eat. I started eating food the way God made it, as close to whole as I can get it. And I landed on a simple conclusion: the best source of protein is an actual protein source. Meat. Not something separated, isolated, and rebuilt.

The problem with the bar aisle

Pick up a lot of protein bars and read the back. You will find protein isolates, seed oils, sugar alcohols, and a list of binders that exist to make cheap ingredients hold a shape. They are engineered products. Some of them are fine at what they do.

I wanted something else. I wanted food. Meat, fat, and a short list of things I recognize, in a form that survives a pack, a glove box, or a week in a desk drawer.

That food already existed. Pemmican fueled people across this continent for a very long time, and Indigenous peoples deserve the credit for it. I did not invent anything. I learned from what worked and brought it into a kitchen with modern standards.

What we stand for

Our mission is to inspire people to live healthier lives in greater harmony with nature. I take both halves of that seriously.

Healthier lives means the bar has to be real. Every BIVI bar starts with grass-fed beef and grass-fed beef tallow. No protein isolates. No seed oils. No shortcuts. Where a bar is sweet, the sweetness comes from dates and local Texas honey, with a little maple in two flavors. Amaranth, an ancient grain, helps hold it together.

Harmony with nature means caring where the beef comes from. Ours comes from American ranchers on certified regenerative ranches, where grazing is managed to rebuild the soil. I believe a lot of us are stuck in a cycle of processed food and processed sugar. BIVI is my way of offering a road out of it and back to nature, as it was intended.

How we work

We make every bar ourselves, in house, in a commercial kitchen in Austin, Texas. No co-packer. I wanted my hands on the process, because a standard you cannot see is a standard you cannot keep.

A few things I brought with me from 22 years in the Army, in the Rangers and Special Forces:

• Integrity. We do what we say we will do, and we tell you what is in the bar.
• Responsibility. If something is wrong with your order, we make it right.
• No wasted weight. Everything in the bar earns its place. So does everything in the company.

Who it is for

BIVI is for everyone. Hunters, hikers, lifters, nurses on a double shift. Busy parents who want to hand their kids a snack that is dense with real nutrition. The capable individual, whoever that is in your house. Anyone who needs real fuel and does not have time to cook a steak.

Eat real. Carry less. Go farther.

See the bars, or read what goes into them.